Gadgetory

heart flutter he's dying the medical tricorder that could scan your body for vital signs has gone from science fiction to science fact you're very much alive this small device called the scanadu along with an accompanying smartphone app can read your vitals in 10 seconds with what the company says is 95% accuracy 98 perfect perfect health we have like a whole range of things that you could actually measure but the most important are the vital signs and so these are temperature or blood pressure respiratory rate oxygenation and operate the scanner D works by holding the device up to your temple we form an electrical circuit in the body you have the pulse you have the heart rate you have here the temperature and everything happens in this movement the device goes over 10 times it's not in 10 second it has to wait it goes over there every second and then actually takes like the best readings it can have creator Walter de Brouwer came up with the idea after an accident put his son in the hospital for a year he initially intended for the device to help other parents but the applications could be far-reaching especially if the device gets FDA approval and can be used by doctors in his entirety the tricorder should be a complete Hospital you know very small device scanadu is also developing disposable urine tests that could detect a variety of conditions including abnormal glucose levels liver and kidney problems and even track your pregnancy de Brouwer hopes by putting some medical information literally in the hands of patients it will improve the quality and availability of health care and the doctor-patient relationship the most underused resource in medicine is the patient I think then we are on the right path if we have like a real conversation with our doctors where we keep all the information and give it to them and give it to them in in in an actionable format it's been a sort of dream come true for this Star Trek fan who recently met with a son of start to creator Gene Roddenberry they never had thought that a prop out of a science fiction series with one day probably disrupt a complete healthcare system currently you can only pre-order the device for 199 dollars through the company's IndieGoGo fundraising campaign the device is set to ship in March 2014 in San Francisco I'm Kara Tsuboi cnet.com for CBS News